Lawyer and
human rights activist Raman Kisliak urges Prosecutor General to investigate the
activities of police in Vitsebsk region, after Kanstantsin Smolikau and Leanid
Autukhou were detained awaiting trial for more than 48 hours.

Kanstantsin
Smolikau and Leanid Autukhou were detained on 22 March in Vistebsk for
distributing invitations to the Freedom Day rally. They were held in custody
for more than 48 hours, which, in turn, was a violation of the Procedural
Executive Code of Administrative Offences, namely Par. 2 of Article 11.2, which
states: “The case of an administrative offense, the commission of which results
in administrative arrest or deportation, shall be considered on the day of
receipt of the report on the administrative offense and other materials of the
case, but no later than forty-eight hours after the administrative detention, provided
the detention was committed and the identity of the detainee was established.”

On March 24,
the human rights defender wrote a letter about the incident to the head of Kastrychnitski
police department, as well as to the police department of Vitsebsk regional
executive committee and the Minister of Internal Affairs, but the detainees
were not released from custody. They were held in detention center until March
25.